There often arises a need to electrically connect one or more electrical contacts of an electrical connector to a ground potential, and more specifically, to connect the one or more electrical contacts to a grounding site near or within the electrical connector. This need can arise during connector assembly or after connector assembly. After connector assembly, the need to ground one or more contacts can arise before connecting any electrical wires to the connector contacts, or after connecting wires to the connector contacts, as for example, in a fielded connector system.
One attempt to meet the described need is described in U.S. Pat. 5,290,191. The '191 patent discloses a device for grounding a contact in a commonly known, standardized type of electrical connector. The electrical connector includes a housing or connector shell and an insulating support fixed to and within the connector shell. A plurality of electrical contacts arranged in a predetermined pattern and in parallel spaced relation to each other extend through respective openings formed in the insulating support. Front ends or portions of the contacts respectively engage opposing contacts of a mating connector.
The device includes a grounding wafer or electrically conductive disc slidably inserted into a front shell portion of the connector, and thus between opposing front shells of mating connectors. An outer periphery of the disc includes conductive fingers engaging an inner surface of the grounded front shell of the connector to thus ground the disc. The disc includes a plurality of holes arranged in the same predetermined pattern as the contacts so as to receive the contact front portions while the disc is installed in the front shell of the connector. The holes and contacts are sized to provide a clearance gap between the contacts and the disc. However, to ground a selected contact, conductive fingers are bonded to the disc around the periphery of the hole corresponding to the selected contact. The fingers extend toward and into grounding contact with the front portion of the selected contact.
The device disclosed in the '191 patent has several disadvantages. Specifically, the disc thickness is limited to approximately 30/1000 of an inch to prevent interference between mating connectors. This structural limitation results in increased fragility and decreased reliability of the device. Also, a given disc has a limited application or adaptability because it can only be used with a connector having a matching contact arrangement. Requiring different discs for different contact arrangements drives up the cost and complexity of the disclosed grounding technique because each different disc must be fabricated using expensive, circuit card fabrication techniques. Often, the need arises for a field technician to retrofit or modify the present grounding configuration of a connector. Such field modification using the disclosed disc is extremely difficult without the provision of a suitably modified replacement disc. Also, the disc is so fragile that proper installation/removal of the disc is difficult, disadvantageously requiring specialized equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,169,323 discloses another technique for grounding a contact in an electrical connector. An integrally formed grounding member is sandwiched between a connector shell, a first insulating support and a second insulating support for the contacts. The grounding member includes a grounding clip embedded in the first insulating support and contacting the contact. Installing and/or removing the grounding member disadvantageously requires connector disassembly. Also, the grounding member can only be used in a connector having contacts sized and arranged within the connector shell to coincide with the fixed dimensions of the integrally formed grounding member. Similar to the grounding disc disclosed in the '191 Patent, the integrally formed grounding member is neither adjustable, nor readily adaptable to alternative contact arrangements.
Thus, a need still exists, after connector assembly, for a device and technique to ground the one or more connector contacts without disassembling the electrical connector, using a simple, robust, adaptable, cost effective and easily installed electrical grounding device.